We beg you to please begin distinguishing between Afghans and the Taliban. The Taliban are not Afghans but are an invading force who have conquered Afghanistan and are holding it by instilling terror in the population. The Taliban claim to be simply "hosting" Osama Bin Ladin in their country but they are doing much more than this. They are, in fact, a terrorist organization funded by Osama Bin Ladin as well as by Pakistan's military intelligence agency, the I.S.I. Osama Bin Ladin is actually the father-in-law of the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar and according to UPI he was recently made the de facto commander in chief of the Taliban fighting forces. Pakistan, who is trying to remain neutral in this conflict, has actually already chosen sides by financing the Taliban terrorist organization. The three (Taliban, Pakistan and Osama Bin Ladin) are so closely intertwined as to be inextricable. The Taliban, reinforced by Osama Bin Ladin's financial backing and that of Pakistan's I.S.I. have been responsible for the "systematic ethnic cleansing, cultural genocide, gender apartheid and scorched earth policy against Afghanistan and are responsible for the continuing deaths of countless thousands of Afghans, separation of men from their families and the forced displacement of hundreds and thousands from their ancestral lands" (OMAID Weekly, Sept. 12, 2001). Today, the people of Afghanistan are those that are downtrodden and displaced as well as those fighting in the "Northern Alliance." The Northern Alliance is the group that bombed Kabul and the Taliban on the evening of September 11 after the terrible attack on the United States. This group would welcome any help offered by the international community to rid their country of Osama Bin Ladin and the Taliban. The people of Afghanistan would not understand if bombs began to fall from American airplanes on their already devastated country. They would blame the outside world for instilling more misery on them. However, they would welcome the Northern Alliance with open arms if they were to begin to retake territory captured by the Taliban. The people of Afghanistan would offer the Northern Alliance any help they could in ridding themselves of their oppressors. The United States needs to realize that maintaining diplomatic ties with the Taliban and its backers, Pakistan only prolongs the problem of international terrorism. Even if Osama Bin Ladin is turned over to the authorities by these groups, there are thousands of other young men in the Taliban who are willing to take his place in the war of terror against the United States and the free world.